Smoke on the Mountain

Well the time has come once again. I am once again getting ready to hit the stage for Quitman Community Theater. We are once again in the preparing stages of Smoke on the Mountain 2: A Sanders Family Christmas. In fact last night was our first night with the read through for the cast. We had a great time and it seems like this show might be even funnier than the original that we did two years ago. One of the greatest things is that we have pretty much the whole cast back from the original production of Smoke on the Mountain.

If you aren't familiar with what I'm talking about let me tell you. Two years ago, after I had been in Quitman for four months, I had the opportunity to be in the play Smoke on the Mountain. It was (is) a musical, which scares me more than just a little bit. But I got the chance to step in and play the role of Reverend Mervin Oglethorpe, pastor of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Mt. Pleasant, North Carolina. I was pretty psyched to get this chance because up to that point (2008) I had not been in a full fledged production since about 1995. To be honest it was something that I was ready to have a chance to do again. The story of the play centers around the Sanders Family Singers, a family Gospel group, coming to Mt. Pleasant Baptist for their first Gospel sing in five years. It deals with the issues that they are having as well what Reverend Oglethorpe if dealing with being the pastor of a small church in a small town in the late 1930s. Overall it was a fantastically funny and fun show to get to be a part of. Now I get to be a part of the second Smoke on the Mountain, this time set on Christmas Eve 1941 just over two weeks after Pearl Harbor. It is once again going to be a fantastically fun and funny show to be a part of.

I am excited to get to once again be in a play. It is one of the things that I enjoy getting to do. I will miss The Wild Things on the nights that I'm gone, but it will be fun and Boo and Puck will get to see the show in the end I believe. All in all it is something that will be well worth the time and effort that is put in. If you are in a place where you can check it out, I would love for you to see it. Our performance dates will be October 29-30, November 5-6 at 7:30pm at the Carroll Green Civic Center and on October 31 and November 7 at 2:30pm (I believe that is the time for both Sunday shows) also at the civic center.

Grace, Peace and Love y'all.

Rock the Desert, Bath Time, Competitions and The Haircut

It's been a while I realize, but I have been out of town and had no internet to be able to update this. I will do so now however.

Wild Things in Nature

A couple of weeks ago as I'm sure most of you know, The Momma and I spent a week in Amarillo with 17 of our youth doing a mission/mystery trip. While we were gone The Wild Things stayed with Gramaw and Daddy Bill. While they were there, Gramaw was able to get a couple of pictures of our Wild Things in their almost natural habitat. Here are a couple of those pictures for you.

A Wild Thing at Rest

Wild Things in Nature

More Wild Things in Nature

Those were all while spending a week with Gramaw. Here are a couple more that I just wanted to share (even if you have seen these on the Momma's Facebook I'm gonna share anyway).

A Shy Wild Thing

A Wild Thing in the aftermath of "The Hunt"

A Wild Thing all wet

The Wild Thing taking flight

One of the Wild Things using camouflage

A Wild Thing attempting to walk on water

OK, that's it for the pictures. I know this is more than usual, but I love getting to show off my Wild Things. It has been a great summer.

Grace, Peace and Love y'all.

Bubbles, Jesus in Our Hearts and Crutches

We have decided that it is time to start working on the potty training with Brother. He is 2 1/2 and we're tired of paying for diapers to be honest. So far though it isn't really anything that he is digging. We have never tried to potty train a boy before so if any of you who have done this have any tips, well now would be a GREAT time to share them with us. I will say this about the experience: The Momma thinks that perhaps he would learn best visually. I'm not real big on this method to be honest, but we gave it a quick try just to give the boy a general idea of how it's supposed to go. I think all he really took from the experience was that when you pee like that it makes bubbles in the toilet. So now when we try to get him to sit on the potty, he tells us "Bubbles. Make bubbles." Great.

Boo and Puck both entered hand drawn cards into a contest at the church for our new birthday card to send to members. I am proud to say that Boo got both 1st and 4th (she entered two cards) and Puck also got a 4th place nod. Chances are all the cards will be used at some point for the sake of variety. But since they were winners they got special prizes. So today they went to the office to claim those prizes. The prizes were: a bookmark, a $5 Sonic gift card and a pen with Jesus on it. This is the pen:

When Puck saw her pen she informed Momma that she was sad about Jesus being on the pen. When asked why that was, she replied that it was because he was supposed to be in her heart.

Finally Boo informed me tonight that she needed $26. Seeing as that is a very specific (and seemingly random) amount for an 8 year old to be in need of I asked her what it was for, even though I thought I had a pretty good idea on my own. She told me that it was so she could get the emergency kit or the feel better kit for her American Girl doll. She needs it, I was informed, because it has bandages and even crutches in it. That's right, crutches for a doll. In fact an entire first aid kit that you can purchase...for a doll. At least she hasn't decided that we need to take the doll to the hospital to see if she is paralyzed since she doesn't seem to have any movement in her extremities and never moves on her own. If Boo thought about this she would probably be trying to figure out how would could get her a remote controlled wheel chair. What will they come up with next for these dolls? Drivers licenses? Concealed hand gun licenses? 

I think that's it. Brother is working his way toward sleep and I should too.

Grace, Peace and Love y'all.

Party Time

Last night (Friday) was Boo's swim party for the end of the softball season. We had hotdogs and chips and cake with crazy blue icing, which Brother enjoyed a great deal as you can see.

Boo got a trophy and then the coaches rented the city pool for the girls and their families to swim for a couple of hours. Boo even did the diving board at the ten foot end of the pool.

In the end, even though Puck and Brother didn't go off the diving board, they did their own jumping and playing. Brother even did his version of a cannonball a couple of times. If you listen closely, you can also hear the lifeguard telling him to walk rather than run.

As I hope you can see the Wild Things all had a great time last night swimming, eating and just playing.

Grace, Peace and Love y'all.

A Family Tradition and Princesses

Tonight was the night that I attempted to begin passing on a tradition from myself to The Brother. I would pass it on to the girls as well, but to be honest they have never really seemed interested in this particular tradition. That's too bad, because I would gladly share this with them.

What is this tradition you say? Is it a ritual, a right of passage in the family? Is it something sacred and guarded? Something that is secreted away in Durham family lore, passed from father to son generation after generation? The answer to these many questions is...no. It's about the way I eat my ice cream. As far as I know, I am the only one in my family that eats ice cream this way...until tonight. Brother saw what I did and requested the same be done for him.

For some reason that I honestly can't explain I began stirring up my ice cream somewhere between the ages of 4 and 6. I remember being with Brad Robinson at the time at his grandparent's house and his grandmother giving us ice cream with chocolate syrup on it and I recall Brad stirring his and encouraging me to do the same. I remember his grandmother having to do it for me. But it was so good that way and I have done it ever since. When I have store bought vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup on it, I find myself stirring it in to a milkshake like consistency and eating that way. And tonight Brother joined me in this strange tradition. For whatever reason it made me smile to have him want to do the same with his ice cream.

Later in the evening, Puck got a hold of my chap stick and wanted to put some on Brother. He at first refused. Then she put some on me. After that he decided that he could use a bit as well, so he let her put some on his lips. At this point he stood up and declared "I a princess!!" Such a proud moment for this Daddy, for my son to call out that he is a princess, and then dance around with Puck while she chants "We're princesses! We're princesses!" Boo tried to make it seem better by pretending that Princess actually just meant prince, but I know the truth about that word. Thankfully, he is only two and has no real concept of being a boy or a girl, so it truly doesn't mean anything, I just found it humorous.

Grace, Peace and Love y'all.

Amarillo by Morning and American Girls

It has been nearly 10 days since my last update on here. That feels like it is too long. Of course I was out of town for most of those 10 days.